STEVEN GERRARD'S future ought to have become clearer today when he faced a media grilling at the England Press Centre.

STEVEN GERRARD'S future ought to have become clearer today when he faced a media grilling at the England Press Centre.

But Liverpudlians hoping for an answer to that elusive question: "Are you going to Chelsea?" will be in for a disappointment.

The FA begin all conferences with the reminder: "Don't ask the player about their club matters."

It will be tempting to shout "which club?" when such a request is made today.

The rule here is that if you get near an England player, you speak only about England.

Unless of course that England player happens to play for Chelsea, in which case you're allowed to ask him which Liverpool or Everton player you'd like to join your club.

It won't have escaped anyone's attention both John Terry and Frank Lampard have issued 'Go and get them' pleas to Roman Abramovich concerning Gerrard and Wayne Rooney while on international duty.

The FA must not have been listening when that particular thread of questioning began.

My attempts to get Michael Owen and Jamie Carragher to tell Damien Duff, William Gallas and John Terry how great it would be for them to join Liverpool have so far failed, but since it would be illegal for such blatant tapping up to take place anyway, no doubt they would be more respectful than to actually say it.

Maybe I should just ask the Premier League commission 'Which club had to pay a fine for a supposed illegal approach for a player a few years ago?' post their answer to Soho Square, and leave it at that.

So Liverpool's captain will not face awkward questions today, although cynics will no doubt point out that if there was smoke without fire concerning the Chelsea stories, the FA would hardly be able to tell him to stay quiet if he really wanted to put the record straight.

FA spokesman: "Sorry Steven, that's just not possible. You have to remain ambiguous on the matter for the sake of the country. Now go out there and tell them how much you enjoy playing alongside Frank Lampard."

Even more worrying from a Liverpool perspective is a conversation between members of the FA and reporters this week.

"The Liverpool fans will understand why Steven's leaving won't they? Surely they can see he's going to a better team?"

Oh yes. A wave of understanding is sweeping across the Mersey as we speak.

In fact, let's make Everton and Liverpool feeder clubs for the mega-rich Russian toy store shall we? Reassuring to know the Reds skipper has plenty of people trying to convince him to stay, isn't it?

Sven Goran Eriksson's advice must have been invaluable. He's got no links to Chelsea.

And did Gerrard's agent, Struan Marshall, really think that he was sending out the right kind of signals by seating himself directly behind Abramovich and Peter Kenyon at Monday night's crunch match against Croatia?

Conspiracy theory too far

SWEDISH sources claimed Italian journalists have been desperate to find evidence of a conspiracy between Sweden and Denmark to engineer the Azzurri out of Euro 2004.

An Italian media man was found inside the Swedish hotel using the fax machine ahead of last night's Group C matches.

It appeared he had been checking for old items, and eventually sent a fake one himself to the Danish team hotel suggesting an agreement had been made.